1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape cartridge of a single reel type.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a single reel type tape cartridge, a tape has been wound around a hub of a reel contained in a cartridge case at the last stage of assembly. Since it is necessary to adhere one end portion (a front end portion) of the tape stably to the hub when winding starts, in order to wind the tape soundly around the hub, various methods for adhering the tape to the hub have been proposed. Hereunder, the adhering methods are described, referring to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8. FIG. 7A shows a cross-section of a transport means for a tape front end; FIG. 7B is a plane view of the transport means for the tape front end, viewing FIG. 7A along a direction A; FIG. 7C is a view illustrating a condition of adhering a tape around a hub after the state of FIG. 7A; and FIG. 7D is a side view viewing FIG. 7C along a direction B. FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B are views, illustrating a conventional tape cartridge, wherein FIG. 8A is a plane view of a tape reel and FIG. 8B is an enlarged view of a deformed part of a tape wound to a tape reel.
For example, a tape winder described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-70005, includes a cartridge support unit which holds a cartridge containing a reel without a magnetic tape (tape hereinafter) wound thereon, and a tape introduction unit which introduces a tape into the cartridge. Referring to FIGS. 7A to 7D, the tape introduction unit 122 includes a suction part where a tape MT is sucked, and an applicator 128 where a liquid such as alcohol is applied to a hub surface of the reel, as shown in FIG. 7 A and FIG. 7B, respectively. Further, flanges 105A (omitted in FIG. 7C) and 105B are placed along both sides of a hub H, as shown in FIG. 7C and FIG. 7D. Then, through inserting the tape introduction unit 122 sucked with the front end of the tape MT into the inside of the cartridge, the tape winder applies alcohol along the hub surface using the applicator 128, firstly. Then, the tape winder adheres the tape MT to the hub, by contacting the tape to the hub surface applied with alcohol. Then, the tape winder winds up the tape MT around the hub, by rotating a reel CR (refer to FIG. 8) in a reel drive unit.
A front end portion of a tape may sometimes turn up over the hub when the tape is adhered to the hub, due to a difference in stretch properties between an upper face and a lower face, or due to core set. Therefore, according to the tape winder described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-70005, if either an amount or a width of alcohol being applied is not satisfactory, the front end corner 125 of the tape MT may turn up as shown in FIG. 7C and FIG. 7D, because the front end portion of the tape MT would not be adhered completely to the surface of the hub H.
If the front end corner 125 turns up when the tape MT is adhered to the hub H, a small crevice S for the turned-up height of the front end corner 125 may be formed between the hub H and the tape MT, as illustrated in the enlarged view of part A in FIG. 8. Due to the winding force of the tape, accumulated with increasing winding turns of the tape over the crevice S, the crevice S will collapse and then small surface waviness will be formed in the vicinity of the crevice S, which will bring a radial deformation along a radial direction of the tape.
This radial deformation of the tape MT has been a cause of some error such as recording miss which appears in magnetic record reproduction, because of the instability of track positioning which is generated by variation of the tape position along width direction when feeding the tape from the reel CR.